1. Field
The following description relates to a reconfigurable processor.
2. Description of Related Art
Reconfigurable architecture refers to an architecture in which the hardware configuration of a computing device may be changed to optimally perform a task.
When a task is processed only in a hardware manner, it is difficult to efficiently carry out the task once changes occur in the process of the task because of the fixed configuration of the hardware. In contrast, if a task is processed only in a software manner, the task can be processed by reconfiguring the software and changes that occur in the process of a task may be dealt with, but the processing speed is slower than when the data is processed in a hardware manner.
The reconfigurable architecture processes tasks based on both hardware and software advantages. Recently, more attention has been paid on a reconfigurable architecture in the field of digital signal processing that executes the same task iteratively.
One variety of a reconfigurable architecture is a coarse-grained array (CGA). CGA consists of a number of function units that have the same computing power. It is possible to optimize a CGA to a task by controlling the connections between the function units.